Indian impact

The exit of Spence and CMHI increasing its stake to 79% (if SLPA goes up to 21%) or 85% would also mean greater Chinese control in the CSCT, a development which has increasingly disturbed Sri Lanka’s giant friendly neighbor India. Furthermore China Harbour is the constructor of the CSCT.

India is the source for Colombo’s majority of transshipment volume which accounts for over 70% of the business in South Asia’s hub port. An extreme development of Indian containers shunning Colombo would also impact the sole private sector managed operator South Asia Gateway Terminals (SAGT), in which SLPA also has a stake. . However India on its part of late has been aggressively developing or modernizing its own ports and luring main lines though Colombo remains an attractive hub for major carriers so far.